In 1902, there were 25 miles of paved road in the United States suitable for an automobile, but by 1930, 23 million cars were on the roads, and more than half of American families owned a car.
Automobility took the country by storm, and New England was one of the chief areas for automotive technological ingenuity. In the year 1900, there were 57 establishments producing automobiles nationwide, but by 1920, according to the U.S. Census of Manufactures, there were 88 concerns just in Massachusetts alone. New Hampshire had four, but importantly, these numbers include businesses engaged in the making of auto bodies and parts, as well.
New England was comparatively industrialized, and there was a population of machinists and mechanically skilled people. In Essex County, Massachusetts, alone there were 54 autos produced before 1910. Every enterprising young man with a copy of Scientific American was tinkering with automobile engines.
The ranks of General Electric’s engineers in Lynn, Mass., produced several electric vehicles around the turn of the century. The Thompson Wagonette, by Herman Lemp and Elihu Thompson, was a three-horsepower, 75-volt, 30-ampere battery-supplied electric carriage, a prototype for later electrics. It made its appearance on the streets of Lynn in 1897, the same year GE developed the interurban trolley lines.
The Lemp-Thompson collaboration produced 13 other roadsters. GE was interested in advancing electric propulsion, but by 1899 the majority was leaning toward gasoline engines. In that year, 1,575 electrics were manufactured in the United States, representing half the total number of cars built. But gasoline propulsion allowed the autos to travel 30 miles per gallon and they didn’t have to stop for battery rechargings.
Although by 1903, both Boston and New York had developed extensive charging facilities for electrics, rapid technological advancement on gasoline vehicles lessened enthusiasm for this mode of propulsion. The reason the Midwest gained hegemony in the industry was because they concentrated on gas engines due to the poorer roads and sparse settlement. Detroit firms produced for middle-class and rural buyers and quickly captured the market.
It’s impossible to overstate the impact the rise of automobility had on America’s culture and physical landscape. The proliferation of auto dealerships altered the urban landscape, usually just outside the downtown core. Streets got reorganized and reconfigured from the horse to the streetcar and then the automobile. Livery stables turned into garages.
Auto sales tended to aggregate; Jaffrey had several dealerships, not so much in Peterborough or Rindge. The days of the auto row and huge outside lots for storing and showing cars was not a thing until after World War II. According to the Peterborough Transcript, the first person in Jaffrey to purchase a vehicle was one A.M. Butler, who in mid-1904 bought a 10-horsepower Ford, made in Detroit. Gasoline for his rig was vended at local stores; the gas station as we know it was still in the distant future.
Jaffrey was a happening town, up with the times. Before long, “service lubritoriums” were cropping up to service and repair the autos coming through town. By the early 1930s, there were at least seven repair shops in town, three of them built by the same man, George Gentsch. The first Gentsch garage is still a garage, the home of the current Big & Small Auto Repair at 149 Main St. George Schoerner later bought that and sold Chryslers there. Gentsch then built a service station at what is now Pelletier’s Sports Shop, on Peterborough Road. And finally, in the late 1930s, he built a small garage on the lot that is now the Rite Aid. This was sold to R. John Hackler, who later operated a gas station there.
Other early service stations include one on Charlonne Street, Grayline on River Street, Robert Hamill’s East Jaffrey Garage on Blake Street behind the depot and Garfield Bros. Garage. Early autos were vended the way anything else was; in a storefront, usually driven in through the back of the store and put in the front window.
Another “service lubritorium” in Jaffrey was built in 1936 by Oscar J. Dillon, the same fellow who later built the Dillon Block in 1941. In 1922, Dillon was running a livery and taxi service elsewhere in town – it’s not clear where – and sold and rented Packard Twin Sixes. Dillon had a full-service operation, as he built a showroom for new Chevrolets as well. He built his garage across the street from what was the Bascom House on the Peterborough Road.
After Dillon’s death in 1945, William Wade bought the garage, which he ran until he sold it in 1959 to Rene and Leo Forcier, who used it as a warehouse for some years. Eventually, the former garage was remodeled and it became Forcier’s grocery store. Today, it houses a pizza shop and a karate studio.
Like today, enterprising young men who repaired cars often sold used cars as well. The Grayline Garage on River Street, which recently came down, in 1938 sold used DeSotos, Ford Tudors, Chevrolets, and Studebakers, some as cheap as $50, or roughly $900 today.
When Gentsch wasn’t building service lubritoriums, he was selling cars himself. Cournoyer and Gentsch is listed as selling Fords; in 1937 there is an ad listing G. Gentsch, Chrysler/Plymouth Sales & Service. Hayes Motors, out of what is now Pelletier’s on Route 202, was largely a garage, but they did sell Ramblers. Other early vendors in Jaffrey included Wellington and Webster (location unknown) and the Eaves Brothers.
Ray Moore Motors was the last auto dealership to leave Jaffrey. They closed their doors in 1982 after 38 years in business. Moore sold Fords and serviced autos on Blake Street behind what is now Jaffrey Pizza, on the site of Hamill’s East Jaffrey Garage. Moore died in 1980 and his widow decided to sell the business a few years later. The company cited their out-of-the-way location as one factor contributing to declining new car sales, although the servicing end of the business was not affected by that, they said.
Moore Motors was the last man standing after John Hayes retired in 1979 and his AMC franchise moved to Peterborough, according to a 1982 article in the Peterborough Transcript.
It seems clear that Jaffrey was a hub of auto activity early on; one could buy a new Chevrolet, Plymouth, Dodge, Ford, Hudson, Chrysler, Oldsmobile, DeSoto, Studebaker or Durant in the first 40 years of the last century. The demise in dealerships has everything to do with changes in industry merchandising and suburbanization around us.
While you may not be able to purchase the newest auto in downtown Jaffrey anymore, it remains a great place to drive one, and the residents would not trade that for anything.
Meg Gourley is a writer living in Jaffrey. Contact her at megness531@gmail.com.